The Spread of the Early Church

Ken Curtis, Ph.D.

Church History Timeline

How did the early Christian church survive?
Humanly speaking, the odds were all stacked against it.

It was unthinkable that a small, despised movement from a corner of Palestine
could move out to become the dominant faith of the mighty Roman Empire,
an empire steeped in fiercely defended traditional pagan religions. The
spread of the Christian church in its earliest centuries is one of the most
amazing phenomena in all of human history. The church was considered a religio
prava , an illegal and depraved religion. Wave after wave of persecution
was unleashed to squash it. At least two of the persecutions were empire-wide
and intended to destroy the church. So how did this young fledgling movement
make it?

More than a building
The earliest Christians did not have church buildings. They typically
met in homes. (The first actual church building to be found is at Dura
Europos on the Euphrates, dating about 231.) They did not have public
ceremonies that would introduce them to the public. They had no access
to the mass media of their day. So how can we account for their steady
and diverse expansion over the first three centuries?

After the Apostle Paul, we do not run across many "big names"
as missionaries in the first few hundred years of Christian history. Instead
the faith spread through a multitude of humble, ordinary believers whose
names have been long forgotten.

To the cities!
Early Christianity was primarily an urban faith, establishing itself in
the city centers of the Roman Empire. Most of the people lived close together
in crowded tenements. There were few secrets in such a setting. The faith
spread as neighbors saw the lives of the believers close-up, on a daily
basis.

And what kind of lives did they lead? Justin Martyr, a noted early Christian
theologian, wrote to Emperor Antoninus Pius and described the believers:
"We formerly rejoiced in uncleanness of life, but now love only chastity;
before we used the magic arts, but now dedicate ourselves to the true
and unbegotten God; before we loved money and possessions more than anything,
but now we share what we have and to everyone who is in need; before we
hated one another and killed one another and would not eat with those
of another race, but now since the manifestation of Christ, we have come
to a common life and pray for our enemies and try to win over those who
hate us without just cause."

In another place Justin points out how those opposed to Christianity
were sometimes won over as they saw the consistency in the lives of believers,
noting their extraordinary forbearance when cheated and their honesty
in business dealings.

Word games with "Our Father"
Perhaps we can better understand the remarkable spread of the faith by
remembering what a jolt it must have been to the Roman world for the early
Christians to come teaching about God as "Our Father." In that
world, people felt, like so many do today, they were at the mercy of fate,
victims of chance, dependent on luck, their destiny determined by blind
astrological forces. By contrast, Christian believers witnessed to a personal
God who could be approached as "our Father." This radical idea
liberated those who were captive to fatalistic resignation.

An indirect testimony to the importance of this is perhaps found in this
mysterious Latin word square that has been found in many places from England
to Mesopotamia. Two were found at Pompeii which would have to date back
to before 79 AD when the city was destroyed. See how the words can be
spelled forwards and backwards in any column or line.

R O T A S

O P E R A

T E N E T

A R E P O

S A T O R

The letters can be rearranged in a cross to Paternoster ("Our Father"
in Latin) twice with "A" and "O" left over. These
are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet - Alpha and Omega,
a New Testament designation of Christ

A

P

A

T

E

R

A PATERNOSTER O

O

S

T

E

R

O

Care and Prayer
Christians became known as those who cared for the sick. Many were known
for the healing that resulted from their prayers. Christians also started
the first "Meals on Wheels." By the year 250, they were feeding
more than 1500 of the hungry and destitute in Rome every day.

When Emperor Julian ("the Apostate") wanted to revive pagan
religion in the mid-300s, he gave a most helpful insight into how the
church spread. This opponent of the faith said that Christianity "has
been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers
and through their care of the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that
there is not a single Jew who is a beggar and that the [Christians] care
not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong
to us look in vain for the help we should render them."

On the surface, the early Christians appeared powerless and weak, they
were an easy target for scorn and ridicule. They had no great financial
resources, no buildings, no social status, no government approval, no
respect from the educators. And after they became separated from their
first-century association with the Jewish synagogues, they lacked institutional
backing and an ancient tradition to appeal to.

But what finally mattered is what they did have. They had a faith. They
had a fellowship. They had a new way of life. They had a confidence that
their Lord was alive in heaven and guiding their daily lives. These were
the important things. And it made all the difference in laying a Christian
foundation for all of Western civilization.

Our own amazing times
In many ways the spread of Christianity in our present generation
is as amazing as in the first three centuries. For example, over the
past 40 years the church under the communist regime in China has multiplied
many times over. Despite official opposition, they have developed
a rapidly spreading network of house churches that is reminiscent
of the early church. This success is mirrored in many other places
around the globe.